A plan to build a 255-space parking garage hidden inside an apartment building next to the Athenaeum and Rathskeller is moving forward despite a last-ditch plea from a lawyer representing a group of neighbors who have been battling the project for three years.

Attorney James Gilday in a letter sent earlier this month to City-County Council member Maggie Lewis called the character of project developer Daniel C. Jacobs into question and urged the city to reject Jacobs' request for $7 million in tax financing for the project.

Gilday said Jacobs used sexist, profane and belligerent language toward him, co-workers and one of his clients, a resident in the Lockerbie Glove Co. condominiums, in email, text messages and in person.

"Is that the kind of temperament we want from a developer?" Gilday said in a phone call with IndyStar. "This character and fitness should not be allowed to get tax increment financing or a bond."

A rendering of the Block 20 development, which would be built on the surface lot next to the Athenaeum and Rathskeller.(Photo: Submitted photo)

During Monday's Metropolitan and Economic Development Committee meeting Jacobs began to discuss what he described as the recent "personal attacks" against him.

But Lewis wasn't having any of it. She interrupted Jacobs and later did not allow Gilday to speak on the matter either.

"I recognize this is a very emotional project, and I really do not want to have that conversation here," Lewis interjected. "We really don't want to hear that."

The committee unanimously passed the proposal for financing, and it now heads to the full City-County Council. If the council approves the move, construction is expected to begin in July and finish late summer of 2020.

Gilday and his clients filed a lawsuit in 2017 in Marion Superior Court to overturn a decision by the Indianapolis' Historic Preservation Commission to recommend approval of financing for Jacobs' dual-site project, dubbed Block 20 because of its location on the Indianapolis Plat Map.

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A six-story, 67,791-square-foot mixed-use development at 428 N. East St. is the site under the most scrutiny. The other, a 57,300-square-foot redevelopment of two existing buildings in the 600 block of North Park Avenue, would become office and retail space. Together, the projects are estimated to cost $40 million.

In the lawsuit, eight neighbors from the Lockerbie Glove Co. condominiums expressed concerns the Block 20 project would increase noise and cause more traffic and the land wouldn't be used properly under the neighborhood's zoning or historic ordinances. There was also some concern, Gilday said, that the structure around the garage would be, in actuality, a hotel under the guise of "turnkey" apartments.

When the Indiana Court of Appeals sided with the Historic Preservation Commission, Gilday and his clients elevated the case to the Indiana Supreme Court, which in October declined to hear it.

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A wooden model of Block 20 sits inside the Athenaeum to show how the two buildings would complement one another.(Photo: Amy Bartner / IndyStar)

"You probably know it's been a long road to get here," Jacobs said to the commission Monday before the vote, "and if you don't, take my word for it."

Neighborhood resident Marjorie Kienle said the lawsuit does not represent the opinions of all residents of Lockerbie Square.

"The personal issues between Mr. Gilday and the developer are overshadowing a very important project for our neighborhood," Kienle said. "I think they both need to apologize for their actions, but all of that is irrelevant. What's relevant is that this is a project approved by the Historic Preservation Commission and the neighborhood association to revitalize an area of the neighborhood."

Block 20 would revitalize a part of Downtown and Mass Ave. that greatly needs it, Kienle said. She called Gilday's actions "vindictive" in his attempts to delay the project, and she also doesn't care for how Jacobs spoke in emails and texts to Gilday.

Gilday in his letter to Lewis included emails and texts in which Jacobs purportedly urged Gilday to "call me back like a man" and said, "I'll just continue to kick your asses in court."

Lewis on Monday said "the political climate is nasty enough" without allowing such crude behavior inside the City-County Building.

"We received the emails and read all the name-calling," she said. "I understand that emotions were high, but this is not the place to do personal attacks."

The project has the support of Athenaeum Foundation President Craig Mince. The foundation owns the property and would sign a 99-year lease for the parking garage and sell the plat of land immediately surrounding the garage to Jacobs for the development.

Some of the tax revenue for the project would be applied to pay off a financially struggling Athenaeum, Jacobs and Mince said.

Under the tax increment financing, the city would receive 20 percent of the new tax revenue and 80 percent would go toward the tax bonds for the first 25 years. After that, the city would get 100 percent of the tax revenue from the project.

A rendering of the Block 20 development, which would be built on the surface lot next to the Athenaeum and Rathskeller.(Photo: Submitted photo)

The design of the development is expected to complement the aesthetic of the 125-year-old Athenaeum building, which houses a YMCA, theater space and Rathskeller restaurant. A nearly 6,000-square-foot restaurant will open in the ground floor of the Block 20 development. Developers are still in negotiations with potential tenants.

The 76 apartment units would wrap around the parking garage, sitting flush with the structure. A portion of those spots would be reserved for the apartment dwellers, but 180 would be paid public parking spots.

The high-end apartments would range in size from a 420-square-foot studio to 980-square-foot two-bedroom units. Apartments would start at $1,000 and go up to $4,500, Jacobs said.

Cleveland Street, the alleyway by the Rathskeller Biergarten entrance, would be redesigned and repaved, with benches and lighting.